Introgression of Brown Norway \u3cem\u3eCYP4A\u3c/em\u3e Genes onto the Dahl Salt-Sensitive Background Restores Vascular Function in SS-5\u3csup\u3eBN\u3c/sup\u3e Consomic Rats

The present study tested the hypothesis that the Dahl SS (salt-sensitive) rat has vascular dysfunction due, in part, to the up-regulation of the CYP4A/20-HETE (cytochrome P450 ω-hydroxylase 4A)/20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid) system. To assess the role of vascular 20-HETE, SS rats were compared with SS-5BN consomic rats, carrying CYP4A alleles on chromosome 5 from the normotensive BN (Brown Norway) introgressed on to the SS genetic background. Cerebral arteries from SS-5BN rats had less CYP4A protein than arteries from SS rats fed either NS (normal-salt, 0.4% NaCl) or HS (high-salt, 4.0% NaCl) diet. ACh (acetylcholine)-induced dilation of MCAs (middle cerebral arteries) from SS and SS-5BN rats was present in SS-5BN rats fed on either an NS or HS diet, but absent in SS rats. In SS rats fed on either diet, ACh-induced dilation was restored by acute treatment with the CYP4A inhibitor DDMS (N-methyl-sulfonyl-12,12-dibromododec-11-enamide) or the 20-HETE antagonist 20-HEDE [20-hydroxyeicosa-6(Z),15(Z)-dienoic acid]. The restored response to ACh in DDMS-treated SS rats was inhibited by L-NAME (NGnitro-L-arginine methyl ester) and unaffected by indomethacin or MS-PPOH [N-methylsulfonyl-6-(2-propargyloxyphenyl)hexanamide]. Vascular relaxation responses to the NO donor C5FeN6Na2O were intact in both SS and SS-5BN rats and unaffected by the acute addition of DDMS, indicating that the vascular dysfunction of the SS rat is due to a reduced bioavailability of NO instead of failure of the VSMCs (vascular smooth muscle cells) to respond to the vasodilator. Superoxide levels in cerebral arteries of SS-5BN rats [evaluated semi-quantitatively by DHE (dihydroethidium) fluorescence] were lower than those in the arteries of SS rats. These findings indicate that SS rats have an up-regulation of the CYP4A/20-HETE pathway resulting in elevated ROS (reactive oxygen species) and reduced NO bioavailability causing vascular dysfunction

DEVELOPMENT OF A PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEM TO OPTIMIZE PV BASED SOLAR ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Demand for electricity in Malaysia has seen a substantial hike in light of the nation’s rapid economic development in pursuit of achieving Vision 2020. The current method of generating electricity is through the use of conventional energy sources such as fossil fuels. However, consistent usage of fossil fuels has resulted in detrimental effects towards the environment besides the dampening amount of natural resources available globally. An alternative energy source that is capable of sustaining the demand is needed to ensure a sustainable future. Since its implementation through the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) mechanism has established a total installed Photovoltaic (PV) capacity of 192 MW from 655 projects that are currently operational from the overall of 2628 approved projects in Malaysia

A prospective comparative study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of olopatadine eye drops and bepotastine eye drops in subjects of vernal kerato conjunctivitis

Background: Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) is an allergic eye disease that especially affects young boys. Both olopatadine and bepotestine are dual acting drugs that provide rapid symptomatic relief coupled with the long-term disease-modifying benefit. The present study is conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of olopatadine eye drops and bepotastine eye drops in patients of vernal keratoconjunctivitis.Methods: A prospective, randomized, parallel-group, comparative study is conducted over a period of 4 weeks on paediatric patients with VKC. 50 patients are recruited and randomized into two treatment groups. They received the assigned drugs for 4 weeks and are called for follow up at the end of 1st week, 4th week and 12th week. At each follow-up, patients are examined and the clinical parameters are graded.Results: This study shows that both olopatadine and bepotastine are equally efficacious. Bepotastine provided quicker relief to symptoms of watering, ocular discomfort and conjunctival hyperaemia. Number of responders are also more in the bepotastine group. Absolute eosinophilic count improved with both the drugs but there is no statistically significant difference between them. Both drugs showed good safety profile. However, 24% patients reported aversion to bitter taste with bepotastine. There is no treatment related severe adverse effects in both the groups.Conclusions: Both olopatadine and bepotastine are effective in treating vernal keratoconjunctivitis. However, bepotastine performed better in reducing tearing, ocular discomfort and conjunctival hyperaemia

Community management and socialising engineers

Community management and socialising engineer

Validity of the Adaptation to Age-related Vision Loss Scale in an Australian Cataract Population

Purpose: The Adaptation to Age-related Vision Loss (AVL) scale was developed to measure the adjustment of older adults who are adapting to late-life vision loss. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the AVL scale satisfies the Rasch model in a cataract population. Methods: The 24-item AVL scale (18 negatively and 6 positively coded) was mailed to 436 cataract patients for self-administration whilst they were on the waiting list for cataract surgery at the Flinders Eye Centre, Adelaide, South Australia. Rasch analysis was performed to determine whether the items were measuring a single construct (unidimensionality) as examined with fit statistics and principal components analysis (PCA) of the residuals. The ability of the scale to distinguish between the levels of adaptation of the participants (person separation) was investigated, with a value ≥ 2.0 established as the minimum acceptable. Results: The AVL scale was unable to differentiate sufficiently between participants’ levels of adaptation, indicating poor person separation. One item did not fit the construct, causing misfit. Furthermore, the five positively worded items did not appear either to measure the same construct as other items, resulting in lack of unidimensionality evidenced by PCA. Following the deletion of these items, the AVL scale was one-dimensional but a single item continued to misfit, so it had to be deleted, resulting in an 18-item AVL scale. Even so, the discriminating abilities of the scale continued to be poor. Conclusions: The AVL scale is not an appropriate measure of adaptation to vision loss in a cataract population

Photometric Titration of Se(IV) with Fe(II)*

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STUDIES ON THE MANIFESTATION OF HYBRID VIGOUR AND COMBINING ABILITY IN BIVOLTINE HYBRIDS OF MULBERRY SILKWORM, BOMBYX MORI L. TOLERANT TO BMNPV

ABSTRACT: The combining ability studies of the ten newly developed bivoltine silkworm breeds five each of oval and peanut tolerant to BmNPV which are genetically divergent and their F 1 and RF 1 hybrids were utilized in complete diallel cross technique. The parental lines and their hybrids over twelve economic traits were subjected to ANOVA and general combining ability of parents and specific combining ability, heterosis and over-dominance of hybrids were studied. Superior hybrid combinations were identified based on their merit of multiple trait evaluation index values of the twelve economic traits

Postural Synergies and Their Development

The recent developments of a particular approach to analyzing motor synergies based on the principle of motor abundance has allowed a quantitative assessment of multieffector coordination in motor tasks involving anticipatory adjustments to self-triggered postural perturbations and in voluntary posturalsway. This approach, the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) hypothesis, is based on an assumption that the central nervous system organizes covariation of elemental variables to stabilize important performance variables in a task-specific manner. In particular, this approach has been used to demonstrate and to assess the emergence of synergies and their modification with motor practice in typical persons and persons with Down syndrome. The framework of the UCM hypothesis allows the formulation of testable hypotheses with respect to developing postural synergies in typically and atypically developing persons

Clinical profile and outcome of children admitted with dengue fever in a tertiary care hospital in South India

Objective: The objective is to study the clinical profile and outcome of patients admitted with dengue fever and to identify the risk factors for severe dengue (SD). Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study of children admitted with a diagnosis of dengue fever from January 2013 to June 2014 in a tertiary care Medical College Hospital in South India. Results: A total of 306 children were admitted with dengue fever during the study period with a mean age of 7.8±3.2 years and male:female ratio of 1.06:1. The most common symptoms apart from fever were vomiting (54.9%) and abdominal pain (36.3%). Tender hepatomegaly and narrow pulse pressure were the most common signs. 131 (42.8%) were classified as dengue fever without warning signs, 119 (38.8%) as dengue fever with warning signs (DWS), and 56 (18.4%) as severe dengue (SD) according to the WHO guidelines 2012. A significant difference in aspartate aminotransferase’ and alanine aminotransferase elevation was noted among dengue fever without warning signs, DWS, and SD. Hemoconcentration, thrombocytopenia, hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia, hypocalcemia, hypoglycemia, hypokalemia, hepatic derangement, elevated urea, and creatinine were significantly associated with SD. The mean values of prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, and activated partial thromboplastin time in SD were 19±3.7 s, 1.5±0.3 s, and 46±7 s, respectively. The finding of thalamic hypodensity in one patient with dengue encephalopathy was only rarely described in literature. Conclusion: Bleeding manifestations altered coagulation profile as well as deranged liver functions can be used as predictors of severe dengue fever

Semiclassical and Quantum Field Theoretic Bounds for Traversable Lorentzian Stringy Wormholes

A lower bound on the size of a Lorentzian wormhole can be obtained by semiclassically introducing the Planck cut-off on the magnitude of tidal forces (Horowitz-Ross constraint). Also, an upper bound is provided by the quantum field theoretic constraint in the form of the Ford-Roman Quantum Inequality for massless minimally coupled scalar fields. To date, however, exact static solutions belonging to this scalar field theory have not been worked out to verify these bounds. To fill this gap, we examine the wormhole features of two examples from the Einstein frame description of the vacuum low energy string theory in four dimensions which is the same as the minimally coupled scalar field theory. Analyses in this paper support the conclusion of Ford and Roman that wormholes in this theory can have sizes that are indeed only a few order of magnitudes larger than the Planck scale. It is shown that the two types of bounds are also compatible. In the process, we point out a "wormhole" analog of naked black holes.Comment: 15 page